Tweeters,
Friday night September 28th, Gene and Nancy Hunn, Alan Roedell, Jamie
Acker, and I spent the night at Sunrise on Mt. Rainier. It was a windless
night with clear skies and a waxing gibbous moon. The stars were spectacular
with the added bonus of Mars setting in the West, Saturn near Taurus, Jupiter
in Gemini near Castor and Pollux, and Venus rising about 4:30 a.m. in Leo!
After the moon set it was clear enough to see the Andromeda Galaxy with one's
unaided eyes!! Numerous shooting stars added to the wonder.
The owling was productive. Lots of "skeew" calls and a few full
tooted "songs" from at least 6 Saw-whet Owls. We got close looks at 4 of the
Saw-whets from about 20 feet away. Their dark bills and rufous tones, along
with their size separate them from Boreal. We had 2 emphatic "skeew" calls
which were monosyllabic and lower in pitch. We could not locate these birds
even though the calls were given at very close range (some of the Subalpine
Firs are amazingly dense). In any regard these calls were distinctly
different from the two-parted or chirpy sounds the Saw-whets were giving. We
"counted" them as Boreal calls, but were disappointed not to have seen the
Boreals. So, a cautionary note (no pun intended): there are many Saw-whet
Owls at Sunrise so not every "skeew" one hears is going to be from a Boreal.
The view of the sun rays shining on Mt. Rainier at dawn was
spectacular and more than made up for not seeing the Boreal Owls this time.

Good Birding,

George Gerdts
Bainbridge Island, WA
geopandion at aol.com